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Difficulty
Difficulty is a recurring game mechanic in the ''Uncharted'' series. At the start of each playthrough, the player must select a difficulty level, which affects how much damage the player character, typically Nathan Drake, deals, takes and the level of hit points he has. Other additional changes include enabling of aim assist on the lowest difficulty, and disables combat tutorials and cheats on the highest ones. Drake's Fortune started with the levels Easy, Normal, Hard, and Crushing. Among Thieves introduced Very Easy, which was later changed to Explorer in The Nathan Drake Collection. The Collection added an additional Brutal difficulty mode, which further increased the difficulty. A Thief's End also included the new Explorer difficulty, as well as renaming Normal to Moderate and Easy to Light. The Lost Legacy uses the same difficulty modes as the fourth game. The remastered editions in the Collection also included changed trophy types (typically lowered to allow more room for Brutal), although the exact requirement and number remain the same. Crushing is typically locked from the start, requiring for the game to have been beaten on Hard in the first two games, whereas it can be done on any mode in the third, and only on Normal or Hard in Golden Abyss. Crushing is unlocked from the start in the fourth game, The Lost Legacy, and The Nathan Drake Collection. In A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy, the player's health and their damage output remains consistent across all difficulties. Difficulties Very Easy / Explorer The easiest difficulty in all games, except Drake's Fortune. Drake has 50% extra health along with an aim assist. Drake deals twice as much damage to enemies, whilst taking half the damage from them. Direct explosions from grenades and RPG shots do not instantly kill Drake due having extra health, but will leave him near death. Among Thieves is the only game in which completing this level of difficulty earns a medal, namely the "Charted! - Very Easy" medal worth $10,000. And A Thief's End is the only game with a trophy, worth bronze, for completing it on Explorer difficulty. Easy / Light The easiest difficulty in Drake's Fortune, and the second easiest in every other game, Drake does not have extra health, nor an aim assist. Drake deals 1.5 more damage to enemies, while enemies only deal half damage. "Charted! - Easy" is a recurring trophy for completing the game on Easy difficulty. It is worth silver in the first two games, and bronze in the third and fourth, as well as in Golden Abyss. A Thief's End also renamed it to "Charted! - Light", per the changed name of the difficulty level. As a medal it is worth 30 points in Drake's Fortune and $25,000 in Among Thieves. In both Drake's Fortune Remastered and Among Thieves Remastered the previously silver trophy for "Charted! - Easy" was changed to bronze, whereas it remained the same in Drake's Deception Remastered. Normal / Moderate The normal and standard difficulty in all games. Both Drake and the enemies deal no extra or less damage. "Charted! - Normal" is a recurring trophy for completing the game on Normal difficulty. It is worth gold in the first three games, silver in Golden Abyss, and bronze in the fourth. A Thief's End also renamed it to "Charted! - Moderate", per the changed name of the difficulty level. As a medal it is worth 70 points in Drake's Fortune and $40,000 in Among Thieves. In all three remastered versions from the Collection, all three "Charted! - Normal" have been lowered to bronze, from respectively gold twice and silver one for each game. Hard A harder difficulty in all games. Drake deals half as much damage and takes twice as much damage from enemies. "Charted! - Hard" is a recurring trophy for completing the game on Hard difficulty. It is worth gold in the first two games and Golden Abyss, silver in the third, and bronze in the fourth. As a medal it is worth 100 points in Drake's Fortune and $40,000 in Among Thieves. The "Charted! - Hard" trophies in both Drake's Fortune Remastered and Among Thieves Remastered were originally worth gold, but both have been lowered to silver. Crushing Drake deals half as much damage to enemies, and enemies deal twice as much damage to Drake. Drake also has half as much health, making him very easy to kill. Tweaks and the ability to spawn weapons at any time is disabled (except in A Thief's End and The Lost Legacy), similarly, some combat tutorials are also disabled. In Among Thieves, Crushing can also be chosen as a multiplayer Co-op Objective difficulty, while all co-op modes in Drake's Deception have the option to have the difficulty as Crushing. It can be unlocked by completing at least one Co-op Objective mission on Hard mode, which itself is unlocked by completing at least one on Normal mode. In Drake's Deception, when playing Co-op Arena, enemies defeated by melee attacks will almost always drop a grenade, armored soldiers will almost always have a Kickback Booster, players will only have 10 lives overall, and all soldiers will be wearing clown masks (except for the Brute). In Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, the difficulty level has a few new limitations. During stealth, the detection meter is disabled, thus requiring the players to rely on their knowledge of the segment to move around. In addition, tagging enemies is also disabled, forcing players to keep track of their enemies. However, if an enemy produces noise, they will still briefly appear as a white outline through walls, as Nathan can still pinpoint their location by sound. "Charted! - Crushing" is a recurring trophy for completing the game on Crushing difficulty. It is worth gold in the first three games and Golden Abyss, but only silver in the fourth. As a medal it is worth 150 points in Drake's Fortune and $40,000 in Among Thieves, it also unlocks Genghis Khan as an available skin in the Multiplayer store in the latter for $1,500,000. When any Co-op Objective mission is completed on Crushing in Among Thieves, the "Masters of the Universe" medal is awarded, worth $5000. If a Co-op Objective mission is completed on Crushing with only two players, the "Back to Back" medal is awarded, also worth $5000. Completing all three Co-op Objective missions on Crushing difficulty awards the bronze "You Can't Break Me" trophy. This trophy is only awarded if the player has the Siege Expansion Pack. Brutal An even harder difficulty than Crushing that is only featured in The Nathan Drake Collection, and is unlocked by beating each game on Crushing. Drake deals half as much damage to enemies, and enemies deal quadruple damage to Drake. Drake has half as much health, meaning that he can die within two to three shots. Most combat tutorials are disabled. Enemies do not drop stealth-killed weapons when stealth-killed. Tweaks and the ability to grant weapons at anytime is disabled. Almost every ammo pick-ups only give a sixth as much ammo to Drake. Any weapon already in Drake's inventory that is picked up will only supply a few bullets, regardless of how much ammunition it had when dropped. However, new weapons are not affected and will have the same amount of ammunition in as other difficulties. As ammo is only reduced when picking it up for a weapon Drake already owns and not a new weapon, this can be exploited by swapping a weapon out for another one before picking up a desired weapon; for example, if the player has a Wes-44 with one bullet left, picking up another Wes-44 will likely give one to two additional bullets, but if the player picks up a different sidearm first, and then picks up the new Wes-44, it will have around six bullets. Using the "cover trick" is crucial, rather than pressing to get in cover, stand behind it and position Drake in such a way that his body is behind cover, but the reticle is not. This gives the player the advantage of shooting at enemies in relative safety (unless they charge the player or throw grenades). Brutal Combo, while very risky, still supply double ammunition, so as long as the player does not own the weapon the enemy is holding (to maximize ammunition picked up), it may be a viable strategy. Not available in the original release of the PlayStation 3 games, the "Charted! - Brutal" trophy can only be unlocked in The Nathan Drake Collection, once for each game. Despite that, it does not count toward any of the platinum trophies. Certain rewards only become available after Brutal has been completed, such as Eddy's Golden Gun in Drake's Fortune and Among Thieves, and the golden AK-47 and 92FS-9mm in all three games. Category:Gameplay